G.R. No. L-2540

FACTS:
On February 23, 1904, Sepa Cariño, a native of the Philippine Islands, filed a petition with the Court of Land Registration seeking inscription as the owner of a tract of land (79,227.80 square meters) located within the Government reservation of Baguio, Benguet. The Insular Government, through the Solicitor-General, opposed the petition, asserting that the land was public land. The lower court granted Cariño’s petition and ordered the inscription. The Insular Government appealed.

The evidence established that the land was originally possessed by Cariño’s grandfather, Ortega. It was subsequently given to her by her father, Mateo Cariño. The successive owners, including Sepa Cariño, had lived on, cultivated, and enclosed the land. No evidence of adverse possession by any other party was presented.

ISSUE:
Whether Sepa Cariño has acquired a registrable title to the land through possession for the required period.

RULING:
Yes. The Supreme Court affirmed the lower court’s judgment, ordering the inscription of the land in Sepa Cariño’s name.

Applying the doctrine established in the related cases of Jones v. The Insular Government ( G.R. No. 2506 ) and Vicente Balpiedad v. The Insular Government ( G.R. No. 2539 ), the Court held that a native of the Philippine Islands who, through themselves and their predecessors-in-interest, has held continuous, exclusive, and public possession of agricultural land for the required period (ten years under the applicable law) acquires a registrable title thereto. The evidence sufficiently proved that Sepa Cariño and her predecessors had possessed the land in such a manner for the necessary time, without any adverse claim. The fact that the land was within a government reservation did not negate a pre-existing property right acquired by prescription.